In this large department
rank all sorts of cakes, pies, preserves, etc., whose excellence is
often attained by treading under foot and disregarding the five grand
essentials.
There is many a table garnished with three or four kinds of well-made
cake, compounded with citron and spices and all imaginable good things,
where the meat was tough and greasy, the bread some hot preparation
of flour, lard, saleratus, and acid, and the butter unutterably
detestable, where, if the mistress of the feast had given the care,
time, and labor to preparing the simple items of bread, butter, and
meat, that she evidently had given to the preparation of these extras,
the lot of her guests and family might be much more comfortable. But
she does not think of these common articles as constituting a good
table. So long as she has puff pastry, rich black cake, clear jelly
and preserves, she considers that such unimportant matters as bread,
butter, and meat may take care of themselves. It is the same inattention
to common things as that which leads people to build houses with stone
fronts, and window-caps and expensive front-door trimmings, without
bathing-rooms or fireplaces, or ventilators.
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